(Pre-)Reading Without Words

Many of us use gestures or hand signs of some variety to associate with vocabulary words. I've been thinking a lot recently about the process of reading, and why it can get so overwhelming. I decided to try a little twist on something old-ish to see if I could access reading to prep them for a text.

We had several new vocabulary words, all of which were pretty interesting. You need some verbs in order to do this. You also need some agreed-upon, constituted hand gestures: and, but, is, because, end of sentence (we use a bell for this).

Alea iacta est - a vocab review game

This is an extremely simple, pretty low-prep vocab review game that happens in pairs or groups. It can take five minutes or an hour, and it keeps pretty well. You'll need:

vocab cards (either TL or L1)

dice

An activity for new vocabulary

This is not something I would do with a class that doesn't have a good sense of humor.

I wanted to introduce several new vocabulary words that didn't have much of a common thread between them. I was pressed for time, so telling a story wasn't an option, and I wanted context and a lot of repetition.

Some Uses for Gallery Walks

I love gallery walks - they get the kids out of their seats productively, let them move around and interact with their peers' work, and the movement between various stimuli keeps it novel. Here are some uses for them!

Easy, authentic sources

One of the things, of course, that we struggle with as Latin teachers is finding authentic sources for our students that also aren't terribly difficult to read. Abbi Holt started searching for such a list, and when we couldn't find one to hand, it seemed wise to start one.

So: if there's one out there, please let me know - I defer to it. Until then, please feel free to use (and contribute to!!) this very nascent one:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j1EDQmovXGkm-fnTujUJZ3e_xQUrNjLk0-v9-YxpSNs/edit?usp=sharing

A variation on read-and-draw with a gallery walk

My kids got a new text this week. I wanted them to read and visualize it together, as well as get in a few reps, and both have the opportunity to read and draw. I wanted comprehension high and forced output to be low. So: